2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable
Summary: Climate change is having huge impacts on people and ecosystems, including extraordinary marine heat waves in the north Pacific Ocean. These impacts on ecosystems and fisheries have been observed across the north Pacific Ocean and pose significant challenges for communities, commercial and recreational fisheries, and Tribal treaty / Indigenous interests as already observed for iconic species, like salmon, pollock, tunas, Pacific saury and others.
The key to managing these effects over the coming decades is to implement a system of adaptive management driven by more timely and relevant information about the current and predicted state of the ocean. This is now possible through the application of emerging technologies (e.g., satellites, gliders, UAV) that enhance monitoring and data synthesis on a basin-level scale. This will also require a degree of scientific basin scale collaboration that doesn’t currently exist.
In response to this need, the North Pacific Anadromous Fisheries Commission (NPAFC) and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) proposed BECI (Basin-scale Events to Coastal Impacts), an endorsed project of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Through 2030, BECI will develop, test and implement an international ocean intelligence system of monitoring, research and analytical approaches that provide timely knowledge, predictions and advice to decision makers about the impact of current and future climate on ocean conditions in high seas and coastal socio-ecological systems.
The projects development is ongoing, active partners are being recruited, and the science plan is being developed through focused workshops (see https://beci.info/).
Using the proof-of-concept developed for Pacific salmon (Salish Sea Marine Survival Project (https://marinesurvivalproject.com/) and the 2022 Pan-Pacific Winter High Seas Expedition (https://yearofthesalmon.org/2022expedition/)), an interdisciplinary consortium is being convened, formed of international organizations, government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, academic, indigenous, and private sector partners to develop this intelligence system.
BECI will also ensure alignment with other relevant projects under development such as the Alaska Climate Integrated Modeling project (ACLIM - https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/alaska/ecosystems/alaska-climate-integrated-modeling-project) and appropriate UN decade programs (e.g., NOAA sponsored SUPREME - https://www.oceandecade.org/actions/sustainability-predictability-and-resilience-of-marine-ecosystems-supreme-2/).
Sector: Academia, Industry, Government, Tribal Nation, Indigenous Community, NGO,
Philanthropy
Organization: Basin-scale Events to Coastal Impacts
POC: Enrique Curchitser, enrique@marine.rutgers.edu
Other Contacts: Lara Erikson, lara.erikson@beci.info; Robert Day, robert.day@beci.info;
secretariat@beci.info